Multicast and other communication protocols are often used by a variety of applications to deliver data to multiple recipients in a network environment. In traditional multicast network environments, a sender may send packets of data to a network whereby various routers in the network may replicate the packets and subsequently deliver the data to various interested recipients. Despite the many advantages to traditional multicast networks, there are several issues that affect the implementation of multicast in larger networks. For example, in many conventional traditional multicast networks, all routers in the network must be part of the same administrative domain, thereby making configuration of a large multicast network difficult. Some techniques have been developed to address these issues. For instance, overlay multicast networks implement an overlay topology which eliminates the need for all routers to be part of the same administrative domain. However, even with current conventional techniques, such as the use of overlay multicast networks, several issues remain. For example, in a dynamically changing environment, it may be difficult for an administrator of an overlay multicast network to configure the network properly as participants are often changing. Additionally, it may be difficult or at least burdensome for the administrator to reprogram each participant instance when a participant leaves or joins the network. Generally, adequately addressing these issues presents additional costs to the organizations that rely on multicast or other protocols and to the service provider.